Keep your fingers crossed! Every now and then the Taurid meteor shower — normally modest — produces spectacular fireballs visible even in bright moonlight. Most recently this happened in 2008. Since the meteor stream is rather spread out in space, Earth takes several weeks to pass through it, causing an...

The Leonids is an average shower, producing up to 15 meteors per hour at its peak. This shower is unique in that it has a cyclonic peak about every 33 years where hundreds of meteors per hour can be seen. That last of these occurred in 2001. The Leonids is...

Hello, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Canton (canton@gmail.com) will be adding additional 2019 calendar events (meteor showers, etc.) during the last week of 2018. Feel free to email him any suggestions.

If you added this ICS calendar feed as a “subscription” instead of a one-time import, then new events should automatically flow into your calendar once they are made av
ailable. Moon phases are already in place.

Was this calendar helpful to you? Visit https://cantonbecker.com/astronomy-calendar/ to see how you can support this project for free.

Planning on staying up late (or waking up early) for this one. The Geminids is the “king” of the meteor showers. It is considered by many to be the best shower in the heavens, producing up to 120 multicolored meteors per hour at its peak. It is produced by debris left behind by an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon, which was discovered in 1982. The shower runs annually from December 7-17. It peaks this year on the night of the 13th and morning of the 14th. The first quarter moon will set shortly after midnight leaving dark skies for what should be an excellent early morning show. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Gemini, but can appear anywhere in the sky

The Ursids is a minor meteor shower producing about 5-10 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet Tuttle, which was first discovered in 1790. The shower runs annually from December 17-25. It peaks this year on the the night of the 21st and morning of the 22nd. This year the glare from the full moon will hide all but the brightest meteors. If you are extremely patient, you might still be able to catch a few good ones. Best viewing will be just after midnight from a dark location far away from city lights. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Ursa Minor, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a minimum for the year. Of course, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours, but these human meddlings with the calendar and do not correspond to the actual number of daylight hours.

If you life in the southern hemisphere, this is your Summer Solstice, celebrating the longest day of the year.

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